Tom Wopat a down-home, triple-threat entertainer

When it’s all said and done, actor Tom Wopat truly is a triple threat in the world of entertainment, despite his admission to the contrary.

“Well, not so much the dancing part of it,” he said recently with some self-deprecation.

While he’ll always be most fondly remembered as the ruggedly handsome character Luke Duke in the popular hit TV series “Dukes of Hazzzard” (’79-’85) that also starred John Schneider, he’s not just a flash-in-the-pan actor who made it big once and then rested on his laurels.

After the six-season series ended, Wopat relied on other talents to maintain his livelihood and moved onto additional artistic pursuits. Among them was a fondness for singing.

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“It always came natural to me,” said Wopat of singing, beginning in his early years on the stage in high school musicals.

With his looks and talent, it wasn’t long before he’d be off and running with fame, too, after “Dukes of Hazzard” into the world of entertainment.

Throughout the years, Wopat has done everything from musical theater on and off Broadway, including “Carousel,” “City of Angels,” “Guys and Dolls,” and starring opposite Bernadette Peters in “Annie Get Your Gun,” for which he was awarded a Tony nomination for best actor in a musical, to mini-movies, numerous guest and/or starring roles in TV, including “Cybill” with Cybill Shepherd, recording albums (“A Little Bit Closer,” “Don’t Look Back,” “Learning to Love”) and Top 20 country hits (“The Rock And Roll of Love” and “Susannah”), as well as performing at Carnegie Hall. He’s currently billed in the Quentin Tarantino film “Django Unchained,” a bloody western.

With all of his down-home charm and demeanor, Wopat’s taste in music has evolved from simple country to a more sophisticated style. You’d think with his background and experience as a dairy farm boy (“I milked cows for eight years”) from Lodi, Wisc., who enjoys fishing for bass and carp, that country music would always be in his DNA. For a while, it was, but now he’s snagged a love for jazz and is bringing old standards to life with his mellow, rustic baritone renditions.

“I take pop tunes and make them a little bit jazzy,” he said of his most recent studio work over the past decade.

Currently, Wopat is touring across the U.S. with his crew and says he’s got some of the best musicians in the world. Keyboard player Jason Sherbundy, and bassist Edward Howard will join Wopat in Sellersville on Thursday, Feb. 7, in what he calls a show that “is more of a saloon show than a cabaret show.”

He also has a new CD on the horizon, “I’ve Got Your Number,” which is coming out in late February.

“When you’re doing standards, every time you do a live performance, it becomes a creative experience. For me, singing has been the most accessible and natural thing for me to do,” said Wopat. “Done it all my life.”

With all that Wopat has accomplished in his 61 years, he still retains a thread of humility. Whether he’s hosting his own TV show on TNN, doing Broadway or quipping corny humor on a TV sitcom, to him it’s all the same and he’s grateful for the work. He embraces it all.